As per standard emergency protocols, first responders such as firefighters and paramedics must allocate at least one person to initiate cervical spine immobilization protocol with a trauma or accident victim with suspected head, neck or spinal injuries. The reason for this is in part to immobilize the victim's head to prevent or at least mitigate further injury to the neck region and/or spinal column. If a trauma or accident victim moves their neck or head in any direction, serious and debilitating injuries may ensue.
Currently, the marketplace does not offer a cervical collar which sufficiently immobilizes the head, neck and spinal regions of a victim. In fact, if one were to put on a standard cervical collar, one would find that there is very little restriction as to the movement of one's head and neck regions in relation to thorax. These cervical collars are not enabled with sufficient impediments to adequately immobilize victim's head.
This deficiency is manifested most fully when an accident victim is to be transferred on to a backboard. A standard cervical collar will simply not sufficiently restrict movement of neck regions in relation to the thorax so that an aid rescuer may move the victim in a safer way. And because standard cervical collars do not restrict movement, one first responder is incapable of initiating spinal stabilization upon a multiple number of victims.
While there are cervical collars on the market that do offer some support for trauma victims they do not completely immobilize victim. In fact, a person fitted with a standard cervical collar can move their head up, down, and sideways with significant degrees of range. In addition, the neck region will move in respect to the thoracic cavity and may exacerbate existing injuries.
Another troublesome deficiency of today's cervical collars is that there is no way to safely adjust the neck size of victim's collar after the cervical collar is placed on victim. Currently, an aid rescuer must make a rough estimate as to which size a victim's neck is and hope his guess reasonably approximates victim's neck size in order to adjust the neck brace before putting on patient. If rescuer's guess is not close, rescuer either must take off the cervical collar or leave the cervical collar on and hope that injuries to victim is not thereby exacerbated. Moreover, oftentimes, in the heat of the moment in an emergency an aid rescuer does not have enough time to properly size up victim's neck.
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is an improved cervical collar that will better immobilize a victim's head, neck, and thoracic regions. In addition, it is necessary to develop a cervical collar which offers substantial support to said regions. Furthermore, the emergency medical field is in need of a cervical collar that is designed to be custom fitted to the patient's physique after it is placed on the patient's neck. The market place does not offer a device with such capabilities which is also especially designed for extrication and rescue operations